Hunters and animal trainers require easier ways to control their animals while hunting and training. Remote controlled collars are therefore convenient and well known, permitting the hunter or trainer to remotely activate stimulation devices such as electrodes or speakers mounted on the collar. However, the remote transmitters for such remote controlled collars are bulky and can be difficult for the hunter or trainer to handle in an active field situation.
For example, in a hunting situation, a dog will often become conditioned by the movement of the hunter's weapon as he gets ready to shoot. The dog learns that once the weapon is raised what follows is gunfire and a bird falling. However, this conditioning may cause the dog to “break” or “go before commanded”. Such “breaking” is a problem because the dog's movement causes the birds to flare up and spoil the shoot. In some cases, the dog may even chase the birds before they are shot. To correct this problem, hunters often use remote controlled electronic collars of the kind described above to stop the dog from moving as the hunter's gun moves or the birds flush. However, it is almost impossible to correct the dog in time with a bulky remote control transmitter located in the hunter's pocket, since the hunter has to let go of his gun, find the remote transmitter, get it out of his pocket, and then find and press the correct button.
One solution is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,830,014 to Lalor, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Lalor discloses a remote control transmitter that includes a vibration sensor, thereby permitting remote control signals to be sent to the animal collar by tapping the remote transmitter. Lalor also discusses using voice recognition circuits to control the remote transmitter. These solutions have disadvantages. The former still requires that the hunter have at least one hand free to control the remote transmitter. In a hunting situation or other activities, the hunter's hands may be occupied with other devices such as guns, game calls, leashes or various combinations of such devices, and it may be difficult to access the master transmitter in time to make an animal correction. In the latter solution, the use of verbal commands in a hunting situation may not be suitable as any sound could scare the hunted prey.
Accordingly, there is a need for a remote control system that can be used to control a remote animal collar that solves the problems presented by the existing devices. There is a need for a remote control system that can be activated without sound and without the hunter or trainer having to remove his hands from his weapon.